Gaming device manufacturers strive to make wagering gaming devices that provide as much enjoyment, entertainment and excitement as possible for players. Providing interesting and exciting primary or base games and secondary or bonus games in which a player has an opportunity to win potentially large awards or credits is one way to enhance player enjoyment and excitement. Certain known gaming devices use mechanical devices such as reels, wheels or spheres to enhance the attraction of the gaming machines to players and also to enhance the player's game playing experience. These mechanical devices enable a player to see physical movements of a game, a portion of a game, or a functional game event or element which increases the player's enjoyment of the game.
In one slot gaming device, the gaming device includes a plurality of reels and one or more paylines. Such gaming devices include any suitable number of reels, such as three to five reels, which each display any suitable number of symbols per reel, such as three symbols per reel. In these gaming devices, the player initiates the spinning of the reels by making one or more wagers on one or more paylines. Such gaming devices may have one, three, five, nine, fifteen, twenty-five or any other suitable number of paylines which are horizontal, vertical, diagonal or any combination thereof. One type of gaming device includes a payline associated with each possible combination of symbol positions, wherein each payline passes through only one symbol position on each reel. The player wagers on a player selected number or combination of paylines, such as one, two, three, five, ten or fifteen paylines and the reels are activated to spin.
After the reels spin to generate a plurality of symbols, the gaming device analyzes the generated symbols to determine if the gaming device has randomly generated a winning symbol or winning symbol combination on or along one or more of the wagered on paylines. Any awards associated with any winning symbols or winning symbol combinations generated along any wagered on paylines are provided to the player.
In these gaming devices, the awards provided to the player are generally based on the number of paylines that pass through each of the winning symbol combinations. That is, the gaming device separately analyzes each wagered on payline to determine if a winning symbol combination is generated on that payline. For each occurrence of each payline passing through a winning symbol combination, the gaming device provides the player the award associated with that winning symbol combination. For example, in a five reel gaming device, if four related symbols (which form a winning symbol combination) are generated by the first four reels and twelve paylines pass through at least three of those related symbols (i.e., three paylines pass through all four related symbols and nine paylines pass through the first three related symbols), the gaming device provides the player twelve awards (i.e., one award for each payline that passes through the winning symbol combination). These twelve separate awards are for the single occurrence of the winning symbol combination which includes four related symbols. Accordingly, in a gaming device with wagering on paylines, the greater the number of wagered on paylines that pass through a winning symbol combination, the greater the award as compared to an identical winning symbol combination in which fewer wagered on paylines pass through the same winning symbol combination.
In another type of gaming device with reels, the player wagers on a number of ways to win, wherein any award provided to the player is based on the number of associated symbols which are generated in active symbol positions on a requisite number of adjacent reels. In these ways to win gaming devices, any award provided to the player is not based on any paylines that would have passed through the generated winning symbol combination, but rather determined in an alternative manner.
One problem with known ways to win gaming devices is that even though a player may wager on a maximum number of ways to win (such as 243 ways to win for a five reel gaming device which generates three symbols per reel), the setup of the reels restricts the actual possible ways which may provide payouts to a limited number. That is, even though a player may wager on the maximum number of ways to win, the physical restrictions of the reel layout as well as the restrictions based on game probability will result in actual winnings available on less than all of the wagered on ways to win.
For example, if each winning symbol combination required at least two identical symbols, then the only way to win all 243 ways is for all of the fifteen generated symbols to be identical. For each of the generated symbols to be identical, each reel strip must include (for each type of symbol which may be generated by the gaming device) at least three of the same identical symbols which are adjacently arranged on the reel strip. In this example, if cherry symbols, bar symbols, seven symbols, money bag symbols, bell symbols and orange symbols are the six different symbol types which may be generated, then each reel strip must include, in addition to the standard reel strip configuration, at least three adjacent cherry symbols, at least three adjacent bar symbols, at least three adjacent seven symbols, at least three adjacent money bag symbols, at least three adjacent bell symbols and at least three adjacent orange symbols.
In other words, for a five reel gaming device which displays three symbols on each reel, a gaming device designer would have to place three of the same symbols next to each other on the five separate reel strips to create the possibility of displaying fifteen of the same symbol. To lay each reel strip out so all symbol combinations are possible for all ways to win, each reel strip of such a gaming device would have to include over two-thousand symbol positions. This disrupts the mathematics of the game because the odds are dependent on the relative spacing of the symbols on the reels. Accordingly, due to spacing and probability considerations, having a plurality of the same identical symbols which are adjacently arranged on each reel strip is not practicable on a standard reel strip configuration. It should be appreciated that video reels present the same problem because even though they are video simulations of symbols, they still have the same probability constraints and layouts as a standard reel strip.
Another problem with a ways to win gaming device relates to the wagering structure and the associated payouts. As described below, the manner in which the payouts and wins are structured in a ways to win gaming device results in the costs associated with wagering on a way to win being different than the costs associated with wagering on a standard payline. For example, in a gaming device with paylines, the player generally bets or wagers one credit per payline which they desire to be active. In a ways to win gaming device, one wagered credit correlates to the player wagering on more than one way to win, wherein the credits wagered-to-ways to win ratios are usually not of a linear relationship for every wagering possibility. It should be appreciated that since these ratios are not equal for every possibility, problems arise with the wagering scheme of a ways to win gaming device. For example, the betting chart of FIG. 3A illustrates the credits wagered-to-ways to win ratios for a 3×3 reel ways to win gaming device.
As illustrated in FIG. 3A, the credits wagered-to-ways to win ratio is not the same for one credit wagered as it is for seven credits wagered. In this example, a player who wagered one credit purchased three times the number of ways to win of what the wager cost. Additionally, a player who wagered 7 credits purchased 3.857 times the number of ways to win of what the wager cost. This non-linear relationship between credits wagered and purchased ways to win leads to an additional problem with the better scheme of a ways to win gaming device. This additional problem deals directly with the probability of occurrence for the symbols/symbol combinations as related to their expected payouts.
For example, a ways to win gaming device employing the above wagering scheme may be associated with the paytable of FIG. 3B, wherein the reels are laid out according to the format of FIG. 3C, and the reels have the symbol layout of FIG. 3D. Accordingly, such a configuration would yield an expected payout as seen in FIG. 3E. Utilizing this betting chart, the average expected payout percentages ((payout percentage*ways to win purchased)/credit wagered) are seen in FIG. 3F. Thus, as seen in FIG. 3F, a wager of seven credits has a substantially different average expected payout percentage (e.g., 116.2446%) than the average expected payout percentage associated with the other wager amounts (e.g., 90.4125%) due to the non-linear betting scheme of a ways to win gaming device.
As further seen in FIGS. 3G and 3H, utilizing the same symbol layout on each of the reel columns (such as with a standard reel strip wherein the display of one symbol is dependent upon the position/display of other symbols) limits a gaming device designer's control in the appearance of one or more of the symbol combinations. Such a dependent reel strip configuration also limits the gaming device designer's ability to establish winning symbol combinations which are associated with payouts in an acceptable range. As seen in FIGS. 3G and 3H, when utilizing dependent reels, a broad range of hit frequencies exists between a player wagering on 1 way to win and a player wagering on 27 ways to win. This broad range of hit frequencies results in a broad range in payback percentages between the different bets. For example, there is over a 64% difference in the hit frequency which results in over a 12% difference in the payback percentages for a player wagering on 1 way to win compared to a player wagering on 27 ways to win. This discrepancy is the result of the gaming device designer's inability to change the layout of the symbols because of their dependency on other symbols. That is, the gaming device designer is not enabled to change the reel strip layout without affecting the other symbols in that reel column and their associated hit frequency. For example, the gaming device designer can not remove a cherry symbol from the middle position of column 1 without this removal resulting in the cherry symbol also being removed from the top position and the bottom position as well. Accordingly, design opportunities to modify the symbol combinations are limited by the physical dependency of the reel itself.
As also shown in FIGS. 3G and 3H, regardless of the number of ways to win the player wagers on, the same symbol combination (i.e., the 1B-1B-1B symbol combination) is associated with the highest contribution to the total payback. This prevents the gaming device designer from focusing different parts of the game (i.e., different symbol combinations) to different wagering levels. That is, the payouts for designated symbol combinations can not be targeted or focused based on the number of ways to win the player wagers on. This configuration limits the gaming device designer in using payouts to adjust the overall payback percentage for different numbers of wagered on ways to win such that the average expected payout for each different way to win is substantially the same. For example, if the gaming device designer is attempting to modify the payback percentage by adjusting the payout associated with the 1B-1B-1B symbol combination, the change does not have the desired effect because the 1B-1B-1B symbol combination is associated with the highest contribution for each bet level and thus the attempted payout change results in a near uniform change across each bet level. Hence, the gaming device designer is not enabled to focus the payout change on a specific bet level (i.e., a specific number of wagered on ways to win). Additionally, without different combinations focused on different bet levels, the gaming device designer is also limited in making each bet level as attractive as possible for each wager amount. Accordingly, these different average expected payout percentages may present problems in designing and programming a gaming device as well as in obtaining regulatory approval for the gaming device in certain jurisdictions.
Another known gaming device includes a plurality of columns of symbols wherein each symbol is included on a separate independent or unisymbol reel. Each independent or unisymbol reel generates and displays one symbol to the player. Unisymbol display reels exist either as physical reels, such as mechanical or electromechanical reels or as non-physical unisymbol generators, such as simulated or video reels displayed on one or more video display devices.
Referring to FIG. 3I, an exploded representation of a unisymbol or independent reel configuration is illustrated having nine separate displayed symbols “A” through “I” and nine respective exploded unisymbol reels 80 through 96. The unisymbol reels each include a single displayed symbol or blank. A rotational arrow shows that for each reel any symbol can change individually. FIG. 3I also illustrates paylines one through eight connecting the symbols. The unisymbol reels enable vertical paylines, as illustrated by paylines four, five and six because the relative spacing problems associated with vertical paylines on multi-symbol or dependent reels are inapplicable. That is, symbol “A” is included on a reel that is different from the reel of symbol “D” which is included on a reel that is different from the reel of symbol “G”.
Accordingly, a need exists to produce a ways to win gaming device in which the actual possible ways to win which may provide payouts is equal to the wagered on number of ways to win.
Accordingly, a need also exists to produce a ways to win gaming device wherein a non-linear betting scheme does not result in substantially different average expected payout percentages for the different wager amounts.